The Spectator

Thursday

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Did the anti-war movement just save the Iraq mission?

When you hear people talk about the importance of the NetRoots in left-wing politics in the US they’re largely talking about MoveOn.org which was founded to try and get the country to move on from the Monica Lewinsky affair and the Clinton impeachment. It has now become a powerful voice in Democratic party politics and is one of the most strident anti-war organisations. In recent years, it has devoted most of its energies to opposing the Iraq mission. But MoveOn might just have ensured that America does not leave Iraq prematurely. This week it greeted General Petraeus with an ad (see picture) asking if he was General Petraeus or General Betray Us.

Wednesday

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Toby Young’s new column starts this week

Do not miss Toby Young’s new weekly column Status Anxiety, starting in tomorrow’s magazine. As any fule kno, Toby is the laureate of metropolitan angst so it seemed only fair to give him a weekly slot in which to fret publicly. His first despatch from the psychic borderlands of West London is a beauty, too, addressing his disastrous decisions in the property market. All this, a wife, three kids, Boris’s mayoral campaign, and a movie of his own life to worry about (Simon Pegg plays Toby, by the way). Watch this space: it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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The coming Lib Dem leadership battle

A book has just landed on my desk with Chris Huhne’s beaming, discoloured face on its cover. The LibDem environment spokesman is carrying a placard saying “green taxes now”. So yes, it seems the Liberal Democrat leadership contest has begun. My political column tomorrow is on the LibDem wake/conference next week, and how it will likely descend into a fringe meeting dogfight between Huhne and Nick Clegg. Both feature in this book, which appears to be a leftwing equivalent of the Orange Book (whose market-orientated solutions appalled LibDem membership). This time, it seems leadership hopefuls must demonstrate leftist credentials, which they are doing here.  I do feel for Ming.

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Who would follow Musharraf?

On the list of things that should keep us up at night, Pakistan has to be pretty high. It is a phenomenally unstable state with nuclear weapons. Much as I worry about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Pakistan is currently the country that terrorists would be most likely to get a bomb from. So I was actually rather reassured to read this piece in The Atlantic which argues that if Musharraf does fall, something which his own increasingly erratic behaviour is making far more likely, he won’t be replaced by some Taliban-lite figure but merely by another unsavoury, gradualist moderate. “On paper, it looks like a pretty frightening entity.

Tuesday

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Crocker damns Maliki government with faint praise

Interestingly enough, after a day and a half of questioning the most damaging sound bite to emerge so far from the Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus hearings has come in response to a question from one of the most pro-surge politicians in Congress. John McCain just asked Crocker whether he was confident that the Maliki government in Baghdad would do the right thing, to which Crocker rather tellingly replied: “"My level of confidence is under control".

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Exercise is not great

If you want a giggle, do read this account by Christopher Hitchens of his time at a health spa. The hard drinking, chain smoking Hitch is pretty much the last person you can imagine being wrapped in seaweed but he even provides photographic proof of the experience.

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RIP Anita Roddick, inspiration for the new Conservatives

Anita Roddick, implausible as it may seem, deserves a footnote in future histories of the Conservative Party as well as the annals of 'ethical consumerism' where her place was already secure. Long before Fairtrade coffee, barn-fed eggs in Tesco and organic everything, she had spotted and mapped out the psychological terrain where the ethics of the environmental movement and the culture of the so-called New Age met the arithmetic of high street capitalism. The Body Shop encapsulated in prototypical form the ideas developed in Steve Hilton's book, Good Business: ideas which have, in turn, infused David Cameron's emphasis upon the environment, his demand that business conform to the requirements of 'social responsibility', and his prioritisation of international development.

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Boris’s first full length TV interview of the campaign

Tonight on 18 Doughty Street, Iain Dale has a half an hour interview with The Spectator’s official candidate for Mayor of London. You can watch the entire thing here.   One point that Boris makes that is well worth pondering the next time you’re sitting waiting for a tube train that is delayed or stuck in a tunnel for no apparent reason is just how many absurdly well paid people there are working in Livingstone's transport bureaucracy: “Do you know there are 232 people working for Transport for London who are earning more than £100,000 a year?! Two hundred and thirty two! In the Treasury there are 7 who earn more than £100,000. In the Home Office there are 43 who earn over £100,000 a year.

Monday

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The Iraq report

If you want to follow the General Petraeus and Crocker testimony the New York Times, the Washington Post and The Politico are all live blogging it. You can also read Petraeus and Crokcer's opening statements in full here. Update: Britain and America also has coverage that is well worth reading.

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Why is al Qaeda releasing a second bin Laden video?

There’s another bin Laden video coming out soon. This time, bin Laden will introduce the testimony of one of the 9/11 suicide bombers. The appearance of a second video is surprising as it is hard to see why after three years off screen bin Laden is making two appearances in a week. One would have thought that the first video reminding everyone that bin Laden is still out there as the anniversary of 9/11 approached would have served their purpose. It also seems odds that they have sat on this video for so long. One would have expected them to include it with the testimony of some of the other suicide bombers that they released on the fifth anniversary.

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Addressing the reality of Iraq

The next few days will be a big test of whether the political class on both sides of the Atlantic can think about the reality of Iraq. Too often, the war is debated as if it is 2003 and we can still choose whether or not to invade. As this sobering George Packer essay in the New Yorker makes clear there are now no simple or easy solutions to the Iraq crisis. As he puts it, “We might want to be rid of Iraq, but Iraq won’t let it happen.” Given the situation on the ground today, the best course of action is to keep on with the surge. The numbers in today’s BBC poll of Iraqis show just how much work there is still to do. But there does not seem to be a better option than the surge.

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The great digital seduction

Last week the RSA hosted ‘The Great Digital Seduction’, a lively event that gave rise to a gripping and important debate. On one side was Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur, railing against what he called the cacophony of Web 2.0 and the calamitous effects of user-generated content on our culture. Keen vigorously bemoaned the decline of the old cultural gatekeepers, the emergence of ‘digital narcissism’ and the resulting proliferation of inane and banal content on the web. Tim Montgomerie, editor of ConservativeHome and BritainAndAmerica.com, gave a robust defence of new media. He pointed out that old media (of which Keen has a somewhat romantic view) has its problems too.

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Gordon goes where Dave can’t

“British jobs for British workers”: Gordon Brown has road-tested this muscular phrase many times before, not least when he accepted the Labour leadership in Manchester in front of a Union Flag the size of a small constituency. But today, at the TUC, he puts patriotic flesh on the bones promising an “extra 500,000 British jobs for British workers". Half of these somewhat mysterious positions will come from partnerships between employers and local Jobcentre Plus offices, in which employers give commitments to hire, train and recruit British people who are either inactive or unemployed. Meanwhile, as we read in yesterday’s papers, language restrictions will be introduced for migrant workers. A double whammy, indeed.

Sunday

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Give the surge time

General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker’s testimony to Congress will be crucial in shaping future US strategy in Iraq. As a new poll reveals, Petraeus will be delivering his report against considerable public scepticism: 53% expect the report to exaggerate the extent of progress in Iraq. Petraeus is also, as the Washington Post details, having to resist those in the Pentagon who want a rapid draw down of US forces to restore strategic flexibility against Iran. There is, though, real progress in Iraq for Petraeus to report.

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‘We need a surge in the South’

"I wish they would recalibrate. The south is a growing problem. It's the next big problem to be faced. The British force in the south could do a great deal of good. We need a surge in the south." So, Lindsey Graham, a Republican Senator from South Carolina, tells the Sunday Telegraph. This is a significant development as Graham is John McCain’s chief lieutenant and one of the pro-surge Senators who are critical White House allies on Iraq. Graham’s voice carries special weight as he has recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq as a reservist.  Interestingly enough, the Sunday Telegraph also reports that General Petraeus will answer questions on British strategy in the South if the issue comes up, as it surely will, in his testimony to Congress.

Saturday

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Letters to the Editor | 8 September 2007

Theodore Dalrymple’s cover story about our sentimental and brutal society (‘Too many teardrops’, 1 September) has given me an idea. Our thuggish society Sir: Theodore Dalrymple’s cover story about our sentimental and brutal society (‘Too many teardrops’, 1 September) has given me an idea. In order to reduce the impact of the British disease of vulgarity and rudeness, the principle of offsetting could be extended beyond carbon pollution. I concede that a donation to the society of polite gentlefolk would not necessarily solve the problem, but it would help and it would remind us that incivility is not morally neutral.

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The McCain comeback

This week was meant to be all about the entry of Fred Thompson, the politician turned actor who’s being presented as the new Reagan, into the Republican race. But Thompson has turned out to be a disappointment. His speeches have been underwhelming and the crowds small. Instead, the candidate taking the plaudits this week has been John McCain. McCain, the one-time frontrunner, saw his campaign derailed earlier this year by internal divisions and the unpopularity of his position on immigration with the Republican base. But there are signs that McCain is set for comeback. He was, by general consensus, the winner of this week’s Republican debate.

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The McCann saga

In the acres of news print devoted to the McCanns this morning, Andrew Pierce's Telegraph column (a must-read on Saturdays) offers the best analysis. Andrew points out the sheer scale of what is at stake. If either or both of the McCanns are charged and convicted - and they deny any form of wrongdoing - "will we ever be able to trust human nature again?" Spot on. And - like any good columnist - Andrew has the guts to admit the misgivings many have felt about the McCanns in the past months, but have been too nervous to express. Whatever you think about the case (and "think" rather than "know" is still the operative verb), do read this piece.